


Assets and Liabilities

by orphan_account



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Body Horror, Bugs & Insects, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-05
Updated: 2014-11-19
Packaged: 2018-02-11 20:30:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 918
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2082102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A quick sketch of Lauren after Old Oak Doors.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Dangersocks](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dangersocks/gifts).



Lauren Mallard was an expert at running away. She had the the patience necessary to keep running long after her pursuers had tired of a chase, which was how she found herself quite alone in an unknown part of the desert. She finally collapsed in exhaustion on a small outcrop of rocks slightly raised above the sand. After only a few moments, she started to take inventory of the situation. 

Assets:  
One attractive yet affordable straw sun hat.  
One slingshot, no ammunition.  
A pair of scratch resistant prescription glasses with antiglare. 

Liabilities:  
Her phone was still in her pocket. She should have thrown that away when she had started running. Its light was flashing in a constant reminder that she had new notifications. Hundreds, likely. Lauren threw the phone as hard as she could at the rocks, again and again, until the light stopped flashing. She tossed it as far as she could into the sand wastes. 

Necessities:  
Replacements for her yellow peeptoes. Heels were not a traditional part of a running ensemble, and she had kicked them off during her escape. Frowning, Lauren took off her pantyhose. The socks had already been destroyed by the sand, and the thin fabric was only making her sweat. She balled the pantyhose and put it into her pocket. 

Additional assets:  
Poor-quality rope. 

Additional necessities:  
Water.  
Moisturizer.  
Somewhere to hide from helicopters.  
A town not owned by Strex. Not Night Vale. 

The pace of her breathing had returned to normal and Lauren got up again. Her hands were trembling slightly so she shoved them in the pockets of her skirt. She grimaced as her feet touched hot sand, but started walking. Her mistake with the phone meant it wasn't safe to stay still. Hidden Gorge was supposed to be near Night Vale, and that was as sensible a place to aim for as anywhere else. It was good to have a goal. 

Without her phone, Lauren had no way to track time as she walked. She tried counting steps, but it soon became harder to keep hold of the numbers. She felt her heart rate increasing though her pace was slowing. She stopped again. 

Liabilities:  
Heat stroke. 

Lauren closed her eyes. "I take my warmth from your great warmth," she whispered to a faraway god. "I take my warmth from your great warmth." By the fifth repetition no sound was emerging, but her lips continued moving in the familiar shapes. 

"You need a hair cut!" a man's voice burst out beside her. "Your hair needs to be cut!" Lauren opened her eyes. The sun had not been kind to this man, had marked his face and hands forever. But he was beaming with obvious excitement, rubbing his hands together in delight. Around his waist was a repurposed tool belt full of clips, scissors and product. He gestured expansively at the surrounding cacti, each with the spikes expertly trimmed to a quarter inch. "Look at all my happy clients!" 

"I need water."

The man frowned. "Water for a haircut?" Lauren nodded her acquiescence and the man handed her a bottle, then began gathering sand into a pile. "You need a haircut. So you need a barber. Any Boy Scout or Girl Guide can find water in the desert." 

Lauren drank for a five count, then took the bottle away from her mouth. "I was never in Guides." She raised the bottle again and drank for another five count. At a gesture, she sat on the sand pile and heard the scissors behind her. 

Assets: Less recognizable. 

Lauren returned the empty bottle to the man. His interest in her seemed to have faded since her hair was now too short for any further cutting, and he was now running a comb down the length of one of the cacti. "Do you know where Hidden Gorge is?" Without looking at her, he pointed with his unoccupied hand. Lauren shrugged, fixed a smile back on her face, and started walking.


	2. Chapter 2

Lauren had been walking through the desert for a long, long time before she saw the light.

She'd heard Kevin mention it often enough - a light so bright that everything you looked at seemed transparent. A light that made him believe in a Smiling God. But Kevin hadn't slept much after his recruitment and conversion, and he'd lost touch with the line between fantasy and reality. If he'd ever understood it in the first place. She'd listened to some of the tapes of his broadcasts before Strex had arrived in Desert Bluffs, and he'd always had a few loose screws, just like Cecil.

This was different, though. This light - Lauren lifted her hand to her eyes and watched each blood cell running through her veins, watched the tiny insects scurry across her bones. Even the thought of Cecil couldn't wipe the smile from her face. Finally, her skin would stop hiding the wide grin that was always on her skull.  Her skeleton would never stop smiling.

Everything was so warm. It was odd, that she would be warmer without blankets of skin and muscle and fat, but then - Lauren laughed - she realized that this wasn't _her_ warmth anymore. It was the Great Warmth. She laughed again, delighted. Her body had collapsed to the sand, but it was hardly important. She hated her imperfect self. She would have killed it if it hadn't been dying anyway. Only the perfect self could achieve the fullest potential.

In the end, it was light, not darkness, that claimed her.


End file.
